Publishing owners' names provides more fuel to the great gun debate

Generally, we try to refrain from weighing in on the journalistic decisions made by our colleagues in the newspaper business. We run our shop, they run theirs.

But the recent decision of a suburban New York newspaper to publish the names and addresses of all the licensed gun owners in their coverage area has become national news and so has the backlash against that decision.

Outraged gun owners objected to seeing their names and addresses printed in the newspaper along with an interactive map that allowed any interested readers to find them.

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Enterprising burglars interested in stealing firearms now knew exactly where to go to get them. Robbers interested in lessening their chances of running into an armed homeowner were also provided with valuable information.

That’s not how the newspaper saw it.

The paper defended itself by saying that in the wake of the Newtown elementary school massacre, their readers had a right to know which of their neighbors had guns in their homes.

Because New York State law requires gun owners to get permits, the Journal News had no problem getting the information. All its reporter had to do was go to the local government center and get a printout of the names of all gun permit recipients from the county database.

Many of these gun owners, however, were furious to see their names and addresses published for having done nothing more than exercising their constitutional right to own and keep a firearm.

The backlash came fast and furiously (if you’ll forgive the expression), including a lambasting from a local newspaper competitor.

In a classic case of two wrongs not making a right, The Rockland County Times decided it would publish the names and addresses of the Journal News’ publisher, editors and reporters to see how they like their own privacy compromised. Soon after that, some editors and reporters who had nothing to do with the story were getting harassing e-mails and phone calls from people who declined to identify themselves.

Perceived threats of violence against the newspaper’s staff led the publisher to hire armed guards to protect her employees.

Yes, we can see the irony.

Despite the backlash, the newspaper is continuing to defend and pursue its mission of identifying and publicizing the names of local gun owners. At least one county and its officials are refusing to cooperate. Putnam County denied the newspaper’s Freedom of Information Act request for gun permit holders. The legal basis for failing to provide this data is nonexistent as far as we can tell. But politically, it’s been a grand slam for state Sen. Greg Ball.

“The asinine editors at The Journal News have once again gone out of their way to place a virtual scarlet letter on law-abiding firearm owners throughout the region. The immediate elimination of the information posted on the Journal News website is the only way we can ensure the safety and liberty of these New Yorkers,” said Sen. Ball in a statement. “This is clearly a violation of privacy, and needs to be corrected immediately. The same elitist eggheads who use their editorial page to coddle terrorists and criminals are now treating law-abiding citizens like level-three sexual predators.”

Yes, well.

Delaware Valley residents need not fear seeing their names on a published list of the area’s gun owners. That’s because no such list exists. In Pennsylvania, you don’t need a permit to own a gun. There’s a waiting period and background check, but no permit per se. You do need a permit to carry a concealed firearm, or to carry a firearm in a motor vehicle.

Among the gun-owning citizens named by the Journal News we can imagine a good number of them would support a ban on the type of assault-rifle used by Lanza. We even imagine some of them would be willing to support laws that would limit the size of gun magazines, so as to make the next mass murderer a little less effective in his goal to kill as many people as possible.

But by lumping all gun owners together, naming them, and treating them as if they are a danger to their communities the Journal News only succeeded in muddying up the gun debate and marginalizing itself.

One of the great unintended consequences of gun-control efforts is how they lead to more people running out and buying guns. It is sad and ironic that the Journal News, in its effort to make our society safer when it comes to gun violence, consequently felt the need to hire men with guns to protect its own employees.

There’s a better way to have this discussion. Unfortunately, too many of us haven’t discovered it yet.